File:Lagoon, Cedar Point, Ohio (Date Unknown).jpg

Distributor: S.H. Knox & Co.

Estimated Date: Between 1907-1911

Era: Linen Era

Condition: Used. Writing on the back. Heavy damage. Missing corner.

Named for its abundance of cedar trees, the Cedar Point peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, was originally known as a fishing spot in the mid-1800s. The popularity of nearby Lake Erie islands, Kelleys Island and South Bass Island, as vacation destinations, inspired Benjamin F. Dwelle and Capt. William Slackford to lease the area and build eight bathhouses, a dance hall, and wooden walkways on the beach in 1882. After multiple partnerships and expanding into having theatres, a bowling alley, and a photography studio, the first amusement park ride was a water toboggan ride that sent riders into Lake Erie in 1890. Electricity was installed at the park the following year and its first roller coaster the year after that.

In 1897, representatives of the Lake Erie and Western Railroad purchased the Cedar Point peninsula and formed the Cedar Point Pleasure Resort Company. An Indiana businessman, George A. Boeckling was hired as the park's manager and he turned the picnic grounds into a nationally recognized amusement park.

During the early 1900s, mosquitoes were becoming a problem, so in 1904, the Detroit Dredging Company drained the swampy areas and created a series of lagoons that formed a waterway that became one of the park's signature attractions. The lagoons provided a place for sightseeing boats as well as a way to get coal to the power plants.

Cedar Point has grown over the century into the second-largest operating amusement park in America and is now 364 acres and has the second-most roller coasters in the world.

Publisher Note: Seymore Horrace Knox and his cousin Frank Woolworth opened a five and dime store in Reading, Penn. in 1884 and later opened enough stores to become the second-largest chain in the U.S. Knox distributed and published postcards until 1911 when his stores were incorporated into the F.W. Woolworth & Co. chain.